Illusions
by TimeWarrior42
Summary: Elizabeth is a normal girl, albeit a lonely one, but everything changes when she finds out that a student at her high school is really Loki, god of mischief. Why has he come here? And why has he singled her out amongst hundreds of other students? Takes place before the events of Thor. Rated T, just to be safe.
1. Bus Stop

**AN: I just recently watched Thor: The Dark World and fell in love with Loki even more! I came up with this story idea the following night, so I hope it turns out okay. This story starts before the events of Thor. Just as a heads up, the story is a little slow to start. So please hang in there and I promise that things will get more interesting by chapter 4!**

**TimeWarrior42**

* * *

There was a time when life was simple, when nothing mattered more than good grades and friends. But all of that would change.

* * *

The hallways were crowded, as usual. Elizabeth was in a bad mood today, getting worse with every person she bumped into as she walked to her world history class. Her day had started out normally, at least normally for a Monday – wake up at 6 am, throw on jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt, and run out to the bus stop. That was where things had started going down hill.

Elizabeth's stop was one of the last ones the bus made before reaching the high school. By the time the bus reached her stop, all of the seats were full. That is, except for the back seat. Every day, a strange boy with dark hair sat alone in the back left seat. No one really knew him, but then again, no one wanted to. He was – strange. There was really no other way to describe it. He was brilliant in class, but every time someone went to congratulate him or be nice to him, he never responded. He had never so much as smiled at anyone. Outside of class, he never talked to anyone, never even making eye contact. There was nothing particularly threatening about him, at least when you thought about it rationally. There was just something about him that no one could quite pin down, something that made him seem different. He had just recently moved here from who-knows-where to live with his cousin. Last year, school had been fairly normal. But ever since this boy showed up, strange things had begun to happen . . .

"You gonna find a seat?"

The voice of the bus driver brought Elizabeth's thoughts back to the moment. She glanced around desperately at the others students, pleading silently for someone to squish in toward the window to make room for her. But no one did – no one even made eye contact. She found herself getting angry with the students. _Why won't you help me? _she thought angrily. _You wouldn't want to sit by him, yet you make me do it just so you can see what happens. Well, fine then. I'll do it just to spite you._ She took a deep breath and started toward the back. She hesitated before sitting down, knowing that all of the students were watching her. _You can do this,_ she thought to herself. _He's just another student. What would Elizabeth Bennet do? She would brave her way through it._ Ever since she found out that she had been named after the Elizabeth Bennet from _Pride and Prejudice_, Elizabeth found herself wondering what Bennet would do in different situations.

All eyes on her, Elizabeth sat down. Only then did she notice what was strange about that. It really was _all_ eyes on her – including the boy's eyes. It was the first time she had ever seen him look at anyone besides the teachers. She glanced over at the boy, just for a second. In that short moment, Elizabeth noticed three things. First, the boy's expression was not what she had been expecting. She would have thought his face would show surprise or annoyance. Instead, it was one of satisfaction. Like he had been expecting her to sit down for a while and she was finally confirming his suspicions. Second, he seemed to be thinking about something complex, almost like he was planning something. And third, his eyes were shockingly, almost unreally, green.

**To the inattentive observer, this story so far seems to have nothing to do with Thor. So far. It will take several chapters to do, but I promise that I will bring the Asgardians into the plot. Please leave reviews so I know what I'm doing right and what I need to fix. Keep in mind that your comments keep me motivated to write more!**


	2. Alone

"So you're Elizabeth."

Elizabeth froze, shocked. The boy . . . had he just _talked_ to her? First the eyes, now words? What was happening here?

She could feel the gazes of the people around her as they became silent and knew that they were just as shocked. The girl in the seat in front of her whispered to her friend.

"Did he actually just _say_ something? Figures that it was to Elizabeth, she's just as much of a weirdo."

Elizabeth could feel the blood rush to her face.

She was used to ridicule like this by now. Why was she bothered by the girl's comment? She had been bullied since she was in elementary school because she acted differently. She never liked to dress like a girl, always throwing on what was comfortable. She liked to read and write and other activities that most other kids showed almost no interest in. It didn't really help that she wasn't the most socially outgoing person either. She had only one friend and had never been asked on a date. The only place she really felt like she belonged was in band, and event then, that was only for the music. But why had this comment bothered her? _It must be because of him,_ Elizabeth realized. _I'm fine with being called names, but not when it means I'm being compared to him. I am nothing like him! I have friends . . . well, one friend. But that's still more than he does!_

Slowly the students began to chat again, losing interest in the happenings at the back of the bus.

"Do you enjoy being alone?"

There it was again. Why did the boy keep talking to her? Not to mention, his words hurt. She _didn't_ like being alone. Why was this kid being so blunt? Did he say this just because he knew it would hurt her? She glanced around to see that people were no longer paying attention before replying.

"Yes, in fact I do. So shut up now so that I can enjoy being solitary." That should keep him quiet.

"How amusing. You also thrive on lies."

Or not.

"What do you mean, also?!" Only after she said it, did Elizabeth realize that she hadn't denied what he had said. _Do I really live on lies? _she wondered.

"I've seen you around school. You don't talk to anyone except for your best friend. You're ridiculed and bullied. You're obviously lonely, yet you deny the fact to everyone, even yourself."

Once again, Elizabeth found herself blushing. But this time, it was embarrassment. This boy, this outcast, had noticed her. She was always a person that everyone looked over, but here was a virtual stranger who, out of a school of a thousand students, had noticed and watched _her_. Her embarrassment made her even more defensive.

"So? What's it to you?"

"So it means I've found someone else like me."

Again, she was being compared to this outcast. Who was this kid? Everything he said made her question herself. She didn't even know his name!

"I am nothing like you!"

Immediately after Elizabeth said it, she regretted it. Yet instead of being angry or sad, he just looked at her with that annoying smile.

"Oh, you are," he said, still grinning. "More than you know."

Despite the heat of the bus, Elizabeth shivered.

**Sorry that the first two chapters have been so short. I promise that I'll get further into the storyline in the next chapter. Thank you to Jasminehoran for your review and to Doyle0915 for the favorite. Please review and let me know what I'm doing right and what I'm not so that I can write better chapters in the future!**


	3. History Class

The rest of the bus ride was ridden in silence.

Elizabeth sat there, fuming. What right did this virtual stranger have to be insulting her like this? It wasn't even just the empty insults like everyone else gave her – these were actually hurtful. The most infuriating thing was that he didn't even react when she threw insults right back at him. Somehow, he took her ammo and shot it right back at her.

_This kid is dangerous if he can look right through me like that._

Finally, she came to a conclusion. _I'll have to beat him at his own game._

As she walked into school that day, Elizabeth was determined to learn as much about this boy as she possibly could.

* * *

Elizabeth walked up to her locker. Thankfully, it was located at the end of a hallway with only a few classrooms, so there weren't many people near it at any given time. Still mad at the boy, she tuned out everything else and tried to focus on her locker combination. That usually calmed her down. _30 . . . 46 . . . 28 . . . click!_

Just as she opened the door, it was slammed shut again. In her concentration, Elizabeth hadn't noticed anyone walk up behind her. A girl with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a creeper t-shirt and glasses stood on the other side of where the open door had just been, laughing.

"I can't believe you just fell for that!" she managed to get out through fits of laughter.

"Kamryn!" Elizabeth snapped, anger flaring up again. Kamryn, mistaking her friend's reaction for the playful annoyance that she usually showed toward her pranks, began to laugh even harder, ever oblivious to Elizabeth's bad mood.

"Kamryn, shut up! That wasn't even funny!" Annoyed, Elizabeth once again began to put in her locker combo.

"Geeze Liz, it was just a joke," she said, still not catching on to the fact that something was wrong. "Oh my gosh, have you seen the new Minecraft update yet? They keep saying that they've gotten rid of Herobrine. But then, oh my gosh, do you know what happened? I was making a house on my server in a jungle biome and I like went down into my mine to go get some iron, right? And when I got backup, bam! He was there, right next to my mine entrance! I swear, I almost peed myself! I just started dashing to my house, and I had the bottom floor done by then, do I . . ."

Every word she said just got Elizabeth more and more annoyed.

"And then I turned around and he was at the top of the steps! I don't even know how he could have gotten up there! So I like started dashing the other way and . . ."

_Just calm down Elizabeth, deep breaths._

" . . . I was so frickin' scared, he was right behind me and then –"

She just couldn't take it anymore.

"SHUT UP!" Elizabeth roared. Kamryn was shocked into silence. "Why can't you ever see that other people have problems besides you?!"

Kamryn just stood there, stunned by her friend's sudden outburst and accusation as Elizabeth slammed her locker door and stormed away.

During lunch, Elizabeth found herself eating alone. She had no idea where Kamryn was, but at the moment she didn't particularly care. Until she learned to recognize when other people didn't want her, she could just stay away.

Things hadn't gone any better since the morning. She was pretty sure she failed her science quiz and had gotten a seven-page essay to write for English by tomorrow about how _Romeo and Juliet_ connected to teenage relationships today. _How the heck should I know, _she had thought._ I've never even been in a relationship before! Not to mention, we haven't read _Romeo and Juliet_ since last year!_

The most frustrating thing about it all was that she hadn't even so much as gotten a glimpse of that infuriating boy in the hallways, let alone learned anything about him.

So it was friendless and informationless that she pushed her way through the crowded hallways after lunch toward world history.

* * *

"This week, class, I thought we would do something a little more interesting than normal to celebrate our school's victory at the football state championships."

A few people cheered. Elizabeth sighed, holding her head in her left hand. Typical that they would celebrate football championships and not so much as mention anything when they won marching championships. Not to mention, Mr. McCaffery's idea of "interesting" was probably writing a research paper about ancient latrines.

"So this week, we will be studying Norse Mythology."

Elizabeth immediately perked up. Mythology? Finally, something worth learning! Two seats to her right, there was a soft laugh. She glanced to her right to discover that the boy was there! How could she have missed him coming in? Glancing at Mr. McCaffery to make sure that he wasn't looking, she quickly grabbed her things and slid into the empty seat separating them. He glanced at her, obviously amused by either her moving seats or what McCaffrey had said.

She quickly found a scrap of paper amongst her binders and scribbled down a note. She slipped the paper onto his desk.

_What's so funny?_

He just smiled at her, amused. Frustrated, she decided to turn her attention back to McCaffery. A second later, the note was back on her desk, only the words had changed. She hadn't even seen him move! She read what was now on the paper.

_Have you come to try to best me?_

Elizabeth was shocked. How could he have known what she was up to? She glared at him. He only smiled and winked at her. She picked up her pencil to write a reply, and then immediately dropped it again. She blinked a few times to make sure. The words on the paper had changed. She was sure the paper hadn't left her desk. She touched it to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Nope, it was real. It now had only four words on it.

_My name is Loki._

**Yup, you guessed it. What other dark-haired, blue-eyed person would I be talking about? For those of you who are wondering why the heck I would cast Loki as a high schooler, I will reveal all in the upcoming chapters. I was kind of surprised that out of 130 views I got only one review! I would really like feedback so that I know people actually like my stories!**


	4. Loki

_Loki. Now where have I heard that name before?_

"Elizabeth, are you paying attention?"

Elizabeth jumped at the sound of Mr. McCaffrey's voice. The entire class was looking back at her. Apparently Mr. McCaffrey had just asked her a question.

"Uhhh . . . yes!"

"Well then, can you please tell me what Asgardian this myth is about?"

Trying to think quickly, she said the first name that came to her mind. "Loki?"

"Very good. It seems that you were paying attention."

Elizabeth was surprised she got it right and just a little relieved that she hadn't made a fool out of herself in front of the class. Why was this boy named after a Norse god?

"Right. This first myth is called 'Odin's Eight-legged Steed'. I'm going to be passing around a packet with several different myths and legends, and I want you to read that one first."

Sitting next to her, Loki smirked like he had just heard a dirty joke.

Rolling her eyes, Elizabeth passed him a packet and proceeded to begin reading.

_Odin's Eight-legged Steed (Compressed Version)_

_[Source: d'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire]_

_Asgard was once protected by a silver and gold fence, but it was breached when the Vanir attacked, leaving the city defenseless to the jotuns. The Aesir gathered around the base of Yggdrasil, the world tree, to discuss the matter, and eventually decided that a stone wall was to be built, turning Asgard into a stronghold. Just then, a hulk of a man came along in a cart pulled by a great black horse. He revealed that he was a mason and offered to build the wall for them. However, in exchange he wanted the goddess of love, Freya as well as the sun and the moon. The Aesir were shocked! They would never give Freya to a stranger, or rip the sun and the moon from the sky, leaving the world in darkness! They were about to chase the mason away when Loki whispered, "Tell him that you will give him what he wants, but only if he can finish the wall by himself and in the time of one winter." The mason readily agreed, and the Aesir were pleased that they would have most of a wall built for free._

_As the winter went by, the wall was quickly growing, and the Aesir became worried. They had never seen a man work as hard as the mason. He never stopped to rest, working all through the night. With only one day one winter left and the wall almost completed, the Aesir grew angry, believing that Loki had tricked them. Frightened, he promised to find a way out of the situation._

_That evening, as the mason drove through the woods to begin carting stones for the night, a beautiful mare ran in front of his cart. She neighed and trotted back into the woods. The mason's big black horse immediately ran after the horse. The mason ran after him. He caught up to him late the next day, but they were both too tired to finish the wall. The winter ended, and realizing he had been tricked, the mason flew into a jotun rage, showing his true nature, and began to tear down the wall he had built. The Aesir called for Thor, and he threw at the jotun his hammer that never missed, killing him._

_The stone wall was nearly completed, and the Aesir easily completed the wall. The wall was good and strong, so no one blamed Loki for what he had done. But still, it was many days before he was again seen. One day, he emerged from the woods leading a little gray colt with eight legs! The mare of course had been none other that Loki, and he had given birth to the beautiful colt._

_ The colt eventually grew into a horse that no other could match, with legs as swift as a storm wind. Odin made him his personal steed and named him Sleipnir, the Glider._

Elizabeth sat there, disgusted. Were all Norse myths like this? The story itself was fine, but then the ending – Loki gave birth?! That was just gross! She had read many stories of Greek and Roman gods, and she always thought it was a little gross that they went around sleeping with each other and having kids with virtually every other god in Olympus, but a _guy_ having a baby?! That was just disturbing!

"I don't always like how that story is portrayed." Loki was talking again. "For one, they always make me look like I did it out of fear of the Aesir, when really that horse was just really good looking."

She turned to him, disgusted now with him. "Dude, stop! It's one thing to be named after a Norse god, but it's another to pretend to actually be him. Especially one who was doing it with another guy, horse or not."

He studied her questioningly. "Did I ever say I wasn't?"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course you're not! Norse gods aren't real! Plus, if you really were Loki, why the heck would you be hanging out at a school like this if you could be living life up in a golden palace in the sky?"

"What if I told you that I am the god of mischief?" he whispered.

"Then that statement would most likely be a paradox."

A confused look came across Loki's face. Elizabeth sighed. One more person she'd have to explain a paradox to. Why didn't anyone else she knew watch Doctor Who?

"Loki, a paradox is a self-contradictory statement or event. Have you really never heard of a time paradox?"

"No, of course I have. I only have to listen to the Doctor explain it to every companion he travels with. But why would that be a paradox?"

Wow. Someone else actually knew what timey-wimey was! This kid may be strange, but at least he has that going for him.

"Well, Loki is the known to be a liar, right?" she began.

"Yes."

"Well, if you really were Loki as you said, then chances are you would have been lying. But then you wouldn't be Loki because the statement was a lie. But if you weren't Loki, then you would be telling the truth, which would mean you were Loki. But then . . . do you get what I mean?"

Loki blinked. A grin broke across his face and he began to chuckle, shaking his head. "I never thought of it like that. You are a clever mortal."

His speech pattern had suddenly changed with his last sentence. Was he trying to get more into the part?

"I like you, Elizabeth," he said, still smiling. "And that's more than I've said about any other woman I've encountered. You surprised me with your knowledge of the gods, as well as with your interesting ways of analyzing words."

Despite her best efforts not to, Elizabeth blushed. No one had ever really complimented her before. She felt kind of strange. It was like someone had just turned on the heat inside her, and it was slowly spreading outward from her chest. Her fingers felt tingly. _Why am I feeling so weird? _She wondered. She had never felt this before. It slowly began to fade. Somehow, she had liked the strange feeling and wished it wouldn't go away.

She was brought back to reality by the sound of Loki's voice. "Elizabeth, would you care to walk with me after school? I know of a pleasant park down the road that we could go to."

Elizabeth glanced up at him sharply. "Do you mean like a . . ." She let her voice trail off, not daring to say the word in case she was mistaken.

Loki shrugged, a graceful movement of his shoulders. "Sure, we could go and 'hang out', as you mortals say." Elizabeth let out an inward sigh of relief, glad that he hadn't realized what she had meant.

"Uh . . . okay."

_I have to tell Kamryn about this! She'll flip!_ Then she grimaced, remembering their conversation from that morning. _First I'll have to apologize to her though._

Loki was still looking at her. She slowly brought her gaze up to his eyes, taking in his face before she got there. His smile was sweet and cocky at the same time, with brilliant white teeth. She had never seen him smile before today, and now she wanted him to smile all the time, just so that she could look at it. Finally, she met his eyes. Those bright, beautiful green eyes. His face was still that of a sophomore boy, but somehow, when she looked into his eyes she could tell that they were much older. His face was kind, but his eyes betrayed the truth. They showed the hardness, the mischief, the envy, the longing. But over all, the one thing she could see in those emerald orbs was deception. She wanted to trust him, but she knew that she would never trust those eyes.

_Beeeeeeeeep!_

The bell rang, giving Elizabeth the excuse to tear her gaze away. Suddenly, she didn't feel as excited about their "walk" after school. Mr. McCaffrey was saying something about homework, but Elizabeth wasn't paying attention. _I'll just get the homework from Kamryn,_ she thought.

She began to gather her things. "So . . . shall I meet you in front of the library?"

"Uh . . . sure!" she replied.

"Until then, farewell." Loki gave a graceful little bow as Elizabeth turned to leave the classroom.

As she emerged once again into the crowded halls, all Elizabeth could think was, _What have I gotten myself into?_

**I know that it's been really slow up to this point. The next chapter should start getting into the action. For those of you wondering, the section about Odin's steed is actually from the book that I put under the title. I just shortened it a little so it wasn't ten paragraphs long ;) Again, I'd like to give a thanks to those of you who left me a review! I love reading people's feedback! Keep reading and loving Loki! :)**


	5. A Smashing Pumpkin

**Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I got busy with Doctor Who 50th stuff, and then life and homework got in the way. Anyways, here it is: Chapter 5.**

Kamryn gazed at some far off point, deep in thought. For someone so clueless, she could sort things out in her head better than anyone else Elizabeth knew. It was times like this Elizabeth wondered how on earth she could have ended up like that. The best she could come up with was that Kamryn's thinking was entirely based on internal thoughts – she did not receive information very easily, but once she did, she could do things with that information better than anyone else. It resulted in an interesting relationship between the two – half the time Kamryn's insight left Elizabeth in awe, while the other half of the time Elizabeth wondered if there was anything in her brain at all. Elizabeth had commented on this to her once, and she had just smiled, knocked on her head, and said, "I have a thick shell."

Elizabeth now wondered what her friend was making of the day's events she had just shared with her. It was near the end of the final period of the day, and the sun had finally peeked out from behind the curtain of gray that had covered the sky all day. The two girls sat on the low brick wall that surrounded the school's little garden between the A and C buildings. Their final class of the day was biology, the only class they had together, and currently they were taking the botany unit. For the past two weeks they had come outside to take care of the school garden, as well as observe the plants and take samples. There were five bulbous orange pumpkins behind them, still on the vine, almost ready to be picked. The two girls had planted the pumpkin vines the spring of their freshman year, and they were now almost done producing their first fruit. Elizabeth had already arranged for three of them to be made into pies by the Home Ed. class, and the other two to be carved for the school's annual Halloween Fright Night.

As soon as their biology teacher gave them free time to tend the garden, Elizabeth had gone straight to Kamryn to apologize. Kamryn, with her forgiving nature, had immediately perked up, accepting the apology. After that, Elizabeth had spent the majority of the remaining class time explaining the events that had taken place since she had last seen Kamryn. The teacher let them out ten minutes early since everyone had finished their work, and now the two friends were left alone with each other at the edge of the garden. Elizabeth waited patiently for her friend to speak, knowing that it might take a few minutes for her to digest things. She only hoped that it wouldn't take too long, because she knew that five minutes from now the bell would ring, and she wanted Kamryn's input before Loki walked up to the library's entrance across from the garden.

After what seemed like ages, but was actually only a couple minutes, Kamryn spoke. "Do you trust him?"

The simple question caught Elizabeth off guard. "I – of course not! I mean, I don't – but . . ." She trailed off, not quite sure what she was trying to say. Thankfully, Kamryn seemed to know. "You don't trust him . . . but you want to." Elizabeth silently nodded, not knowing what to say. Kamryn nodded back, her suspicion confirmed.

"In that case," she began, her face serious, "The answer is simple. You need to get him to expose himself."

Elizabeth's eyes got wide. "Kamryn!"

"Not that kind of expose, Liz," she replied, rolling her eyes. "You need to get him to expose his thoughts, his intentions."

Elizabeth gave her friend a confused look. Seeing that she didn't understand, Kamryn turned away from Elizabeth and began to dig around for something in her backpack. She pulled her hand out, clutching a red three-section spiral notebook. Elizabeth immediately recognized it as Kamryn's sketchbook. The faint smell of paper and pencil lead wafted up on a gentle breeze as Kamryn flipped through the notebook, stopping at a page near the middle. She folded the notebook behind itself, revealing a sketch of a blocky, pixilated figure. It was Steve, the basic avatar from Minecraft. Elizabeth had seen Steve enough while watching Kamryn play to recognize that something was different about this one. Instead of seeing his two dark blue eyes, Steve's eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark, blocky sunglasses.

"You see the difference, right?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah, Steve has sunglasses on. But what does a picture of Steve have anything to do with my problem?"

"Let me show you." She flipped the page to show another drawing. This one contained two characters. At first glance, they seemed exactly the same. But there was one difference: the second didn't have eyes. Herobrine.

"You saw the first sketch and immediately thought it was Steve. But there are other people with such an innocent looking skin." She pointed at Herobrine. "The thing that makes Herobrine so scary, apart from the fact that he wrecks your game like an Enderman on drugs, is that he's so innocent looking. He seems like just another normal guy. Until you look at the eyes."

Elizabeth shivered, remembering Loki's eyes.

Kamryn flipped back to the first drawing. "This is Loki right now. You need to find a way to get the glasses off."

And with that, the bell rang and students began to stream out of the buildings.

* * *

Fifteen minutes passed by, still with no sign of Loki. By now, most of the students had left on the buses or by car or gone to their various after school activities. There were only a few people scattered in small groups here or there, and none within twenty yards of the two girls. A set of purple headphones wrapped around Kamryn's head as she stared at the screen of her Kindle, absorbed by whatever YouTube video she was watching. She giggled into the silence occasionally, making anyone near them turn, stare, and then turn away again, rolling their eyes. Elizabeth sat with her arms propped on her legs, head in hands. She traced the same crack in the concrete beneath her feet with her eyes for the hundredth time, bored. If Loki didn't show up in the next five minutes, she decided that she would leave.

A minute went by and she began to count footsteps as people walked by. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 . . . 7 . . . 8 . . . 9 . . . 10 . . . 11 . . . 12 . . . 13 . . . 14 . . . 15 . . . Two new pairs of footsteps came in from the left . . . 1, 2 . . . 3, 4 . . . 5, 6 . . . 7, 8 . . . 9, 10 . . . 11 –

Abruptly, they stopped.

"Whacha doin', nerds?" The nasty male voice came from above them, and a girl giggled. Immediately, Elizabeth snapped her head up and locked eyes with the girl. It was the same one that had called her a weirdo on the bus that morning. Now that she could see her face, Elizabeth recognized the girl as Monica, the school gossip. The kid next to her looked like he was a junior or senior and was obviously a football jock, most likely her boyfriend. Kamryn, still absorbed in her tablet and oblivious to the situation, giggled at something on the screen.

"Aw, looks like little miss clueless has finally lost it," Monica sneered at her. Elizabeth elbowed Kamryn sharply in the ribs. Looking up, Kamryn complained, "Hey, what was that for? I was – " She stopped mid-sentence as she noticed the two newcomers. She shrank back in her seat, obviously intimidated by a girl with such a high social standing. Noticing this, Elizabeth sat even straighter, determined not to be pushed around by Monica again.

"Too busy protecting your precious garden to go home and cry about your life?" Monica jeered at them.

"At least I have one," Elizabeth shot back at her, trying hard to keep the rising anger from showing in her face. Nothing would give them more satisfaction than showing that they were getting to her.

"Oh, and does this 'life' of yours include more friends than Clueless here and fake ones you meet online?" Monica smirked, clearly not fazed. Her boyfriend started circling around to the back of the two girls.

"I have friends!"

"Ooo, _plural!_" She looked around, pretending to be searching hard. "I'm sorry, but I only see one! Unless you're so desperate as to count the pumpkins." Her face became one of mock concern. "Well, I'm sorry to deliver the bad news, but I'm afraid one of your orange friends has been in a fatal accident."

Elizabeth's eyes got wide. She whirled around and dove at the football jock, but it was too late. _Smash!_ His foot came down on the biggest of the five pumpkins, spraying pumpkin juice everywhere. Kamryn screamed. The jock pushed Elizabeth off of him and brought his foot down again, grinding the remaining pieced into the ground. Elizabeth flew backward into the wall. She heard a sharp crack and an agonizing pain cut into the back of her skull. She cried out in pain. Her ears rang and her vision went blurry. She could just make out the frightened look on the jock's face, and then he ran from her field of vision. Kamryn sat there in shock, her mouth open. She heard a distant cry and the sound of a body hitting the pavement. It seemed like the sound was coming from the end of a tunnel. A few seconds passed. She felt herself being gently lifted from the wall as someone picked her up. The last thing Elizabeth saw before she passed out was a pair of bright green eyes.

**I know I said that this chapter would get more into the action, and in a way it did, but not in the way I had intended. It was going to be much longer, but my time got cut short by the turkey waiting for me downstairs. Happy Thanksgiving to all! I'm thankful for family and friends and fanfiction, along with the amazing people who make the things that we write fanfics about. I'm also really thankful for reviews . . . ****hint hint. If you have any guesses as to where I'm going with the whole Elizabeth/Loki relationship and why the heck Loki is taking interest in this chick, I would love to hear them! Updates from here on out might be a little spotty. I'm still trying to work out a good schedule since I started doing winter percussion . . . Anyways, hope you enjoyed and please review!**


	6. Darkness and Enlightenment

**Last Tuesday night, I dug deep and found my inner descriptive writer, Luna, hiding in a dark corner roasting marshmallows over a pile of burning books. It was somewhat disturbing, considering that everything she does and writes comes from my memories. Anyways, as punishment 9or maybe reward since most of the books she was burning appeared to be copies of the Twilight Saga) I forced her to write the first part of this chapter as I watched and ate the rest of her marshmallows. Raw. Enjoy! :)**

* * *

_Darkness._

_I shut my eyes tight and then open them again._

_Still nothing._

_I look side to side and find that the darkness in complete. It wraps around me, suffocating me with its emptiness. I try to make a sound, move, do something, but I find that I am incapable. I feel the weight of a thousand tons of earth pressing down on me, yet at the same time it seems like there is nothing around me for miles in every direction. The absolute silence screams in my head, filling every corner of my mind with its oblivion. I am utterly alone in this wasteland, devoid of light or sensation of any kind._

_Eons pass in monotony, or maybe seconds. Time doesn't exist in this strange realm where everything and nothing seem to exist in the same space. There is no future, no past, no hope, no fear, no thought. Here there is only existence._

_Suddenly, a tiny pinprick of light appears in the distance, shattering the flatness. I am once again free to move, and I move my limbs sluggishly through the thick darkness, ever onward toward the light. The purpose of my reality is now solely to reach that tiny shadow of hope. With the light I can feel again, move again, think again. Without it, I am nothing, not even important enough to mingle among the particles of the dirt of the earth. Without it, I am once again cursed to an eternity lost in the thick vacuum._

_The pinprick expands to a marble, then a wall, and then I am engulfed by its brilliance._

_The scene changes. I open my eyes to see that I'm at home in my living room. There is a deep layer of snow outside, painting the maple and birch trees at the edge of the forest in the backyard in dazzling silver. I stare at them, admiring their exquisite beauty. The fluffy snow drapes them in a white veil, glistening off every bare branch, clothing the naked trees with sparkling light. I peer deeper into the grove, wanting to see more, but beyond the first few layers of trees, the woods abruptly stop, melting away into darkness._

_"Elizabeth!" I spin around and am greeted by the much longed for familiar sight of my mother drifting gracefully down the stairs, her face lit up with a broad smile. She is wearing a long elegant white dress that seems to flow around her feet as if it were under water. Her long brown hair is pulled back in a French braid, trailing down her left shoulder. As always, not a hair is out of place, unlike my hair, which, though brown like hers, is always curly and frizzy._

_"Mom!" I smile and run to her, wrapping my arms around her middle in a tight embrace. I bury my face in her shoulder, breathing in the sweet scent of cinnamon spice that follows her wherever she goes, my silent tears of joy soaking into her dress. She brings her arms around me, sending warm memories of this same embrace many times past to the front of my mind. It had been so long since I'd last seen her; it almost felt surreal to now be standing in her arms._

_After a long while, she pulls away, holding me at arms length in front of her, looking me over with her sparkling blue eyes._

_"You've grown," she smiles at me. I'd almost forgotten how much I love that smile._

_I roll my eyes at her, all the while smiling. "What would you expect, Mom? It's been almost two and a half years since . . ."_

_A knot forms in my throat and a fresh wave of tears springs up. Two and a half years. That's how long it had been since I'd last seen my mom. Two and a half years of emptiness, with nothing that could possibly fill the hole. Two and a half years since I'd last hugged mom, last seen her smile light up her face._

_"Why did you have to go?" I whimper, tears still streaming down my face._

_Mom smiles sadly. "There was nothing I could do about it."_

_"But you were perfectly healthy! There was nothing wrong with you!"_

_She once again brings me in close, and I nestle my head in the curve of her neck. She strokes my hair gently, just like she used to when I was little and had nightmares. "Sometimes it's just someone's time to go," she whispers. "It's a part of life that you just have to accept. When someone leaves, you mourn for them, you want them back, but you cannot change what has happened, so you must eventually accept it, otherwise life cannot continue. You can remember the past, but you must not live in it, for there is the future to think about. And you have done this extremely well Elizabeth. I'm proud of the person you have become. I'm proud of my little Lizzy."_

_She takes my head in her hands and smiles._

_Without warning, Mom pulls away, tilting her head to the side. I recognize the gesture: she is listening to something. Her eyes become worried and her brows knit together._

_"What is it?" I ask, concern evident in my voice._

_"I – I have to go." She turns to leave out the back door._

_"No, wait! Don't leave me here alone!"_

_She stops and looks back at me, a gentle smile tugging at the corners of her lips._

_"You've never been alone."_

_I rush to her, hugging her once more._

_"Don't worry Lizzy. I'll be back."_

_"Promise?" I look up into her eyes. I cannot bear to lose her again._

_She smiles. "Promise."_

_And then she is gone, gliding over the picture-perfect snow, through the woods and disappearing into the darkness beyond. She leaves no footprints, leaving the snow as flawless as it was before. And yet it isn't. As soon as her presence is gone, the scene begins to disintegrate, falling apart before my eyes. The snow yellows and burns up like old movie film. The house's walls begin to dissolve at the edges, eaten up by the steadily growing darkness. Branch by branch, the trees melt, falling away like candle wax, dripping to the ground before the earth too disappears. I am once again left alone in the darkness._

_I manage to get out one last sentence before the dusk takes me too._

_"You promised . . ."_

_Immeasurable time passes. I exist._

_A light. My consciousness returns, as does my hope, welling up inside me as I once again push my way through the inky void, desperate to return to my mother. I get closer and closer, my hopes climbing higher and higher._

_I stop abruptly._

_Something is wrong._

_The light is dim, not bright and joyous like the first. It does not bring happiness with it, only misery and hatred. This is not my mother._

_Panic strikes me. I must not let it touch me. If it does, I will never see her again. I turn and flee like a frightened deer, letting instinct kick in. Yet I cannot move away, the darkness won't let me. The terror rises, surging through me as I push against the wall of shadow that presses me back. I glance back and the light is has pushed closer, taking on a sickly shade of green in the process. I open my mouth and scream, throwing myself at the darkness, but no sound comes out and my frenzied efforts do nothing but give the devilish orb time to bring its deathful presence closer. I spin around, pressing my back against the mass of shadows, the globe of light rushing in at me, faster and faster, ever closer with every passing second. No! It can't end like this, it can't! Mom, you promised! You promised you would come back! Save me! Please, I'll do anything, just don't let it get me! Save me! Help! Please, don't let it touch me! DON'T LET IT TOUCH ME!_

"DON'T LET IT TOUCH ME!"

Elizabeth's eyes snapped open, her pupils constricted to dots, her face a mask of animalistic terror. She tried to fling herself away, but a pair of strong arms held her down. She struggled and thrashed, screaming, trying desperately to free herself from the bonds that held her captive.

"Liz! Stop! It's only a nightmare!"

Elizabeth jerked her head around, catching a glimpse of Kamryn standing next to her. "KAMRYN, RUN! DON'T LET IT TAKE YOU!"

Kamryn slapped her across the face.

Elizabeth was shocked in to silence.

"Back from crazy land now?"

Elizabeth brought her hand up to her still stinging face. "Why?!"

"Did you not hear yourself? You were screaming like the devil himself was chasing you! That must've been some crazy nightmare, huh?"

Elizabeth still stared at her, stunned. "But why the heck would you slap me so hard?!"

She grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that. That might leave an einsy-weinsy little mark." She said apologetically. "Still, you were screaming pretty loudly. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole school heard you! What was that dream about anyways?"

Elizabeth began to sit up. "I – uhnnnnn . . ." She stopped, suddenly aware of an excruciation pain at the back of her skull. Black spots danced before her eyes and the events of the day came flooding back to her, crowding out any wisps of memoreies she had remaining of the nightmare. Waiting outside the library, being mocked by Monica, half a year of their hard work being reduced to mush. She remembered diving at the jock and being thrown back, but after that things got fuzzy and abruptly stopped.

She was gently pushed back down by a pair of cold hands. "Stop, you're hurt. You must lie down and rest." As the spots began to fade away, Elizabeth noticed for the first time that there was a third person in the room. "When did you get here Loki?" she asked groggily. The pain had lessened, but there was now a constant throbbing coming from the back of her head, making it painful to concentrate on any one thing.

"Do you seriously not remember?" Kamryn asked, incredulous. "He totally saved you from that football jerk! Well, almost anyways. After you dived at him, he kinda threw you off and your head hit the brick wall. I don't think that he meant to hurt you because he kinda just stood there frozen for a second after he heard the thud, like he was scared for his life, like the deer in the headlights kinda thing. It certainly looked like he didn't mean to."

"It doesn't matter whether he mean to or not, he is still guilty!" Loki interjected.

Kamryn glared at the boy. "Shush, Enderman, I'm telling a story!" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at the name Enderman.

"Anyways, the stupid coward bolts, trying to save his own butt from getting in trouble, when this kid freakin' pops out of thin air and flips this guy ninja-style onto his back with one hand! I don't even know how the heck he got there, there was no one out by the garden two seconds before. Anyways, then he comes over and picks you up and there's like blood dripping from your head, so he takes you to an empty classroom in the stadium and then he said some weird words in Latin or something and your head stopped bleeding. He wouldn't let me get the nurse, but I showed him where your first-aid stuff was in your bag and he wrapped it up with some gauze stuff. You were out cold for a while and then you started yelling and woke up and here we are now!" Kamryn smiled like everything she had just said had made perfect sense.

Elizabeth reviewed the information in her head. A virtual stranger that she had just met that morning and who had refused to talk to anyone else before had defended her and possibly saved her life. Not only that, but he had invited her out to walk with him alone, apparently had magic healing powers, and had been through her bag. Plus he had witnessed her waking up from a nightmare. Elizabeth groaned inwardly. So much for first impressions. Going through her list, she decided to start with the thing that was most obviously out of place. She turned her head ever so slightly so she could see Loki better without it hurting too much. "So you cast magic spell on me or something?"

"A thank you would be nice," he smirked.

"Just answer the question."

"Alright then, yes," he said frankly, like doing magic was something normal.

"You know," Elizabeth smiled jokingly, "I thought you were just joking with me before about being the real Loki, but now with the magic paper and healing spells, it's starting to become more and more believable." She laughed, cringing slightly at the pain it caused her head. "Well, either that or you're Harry Potter and your Hogwarts letter got lost on the way across the Atlantic."

Loki grinned, slipping into a flawless English accent. "I think you'll find that I can be much more charismatic than that fictional amateur, my dear."

Elizabeth frowned. "I know you're trying to be cute with the English accent, but please don't call me that."

"Call you what?" For once, Loki looked genuinely confused.

"You called me 'my dear'. Please don't call me that, it makes me uncomfortable."

Loki reached down and began to stroke Elizabeth's long brown hair. She jerked her head away from his cold touch, increasing the throbbing tenfold. She moaned quietly and lowered her head back down to the table she was laying on. A balled up sweatshirt sat beneath her head, serving as a makeshift pillow. Loki withdrew his hand, sensing the girl's discomfort.

"Ah, my dear, but I have every right to call you that. You obviously don't remember, but I used to call you that all the time when we were younger. You liked it too," he grinned mischievously.

"What do you mean? I've never even talked to you until today!" Elizabeth yelled, frustrated by the boy's utter confidence. What the heck was he going on about? No longer comfortable laying down, Elizabeth slowly brought herself up to a sitting position, ignoring the pounding in her head, and swung her legs over the side of the table.

"Ooh, this is getting intense!" Kamryn commented from a few feet away. She had somehow materialized a bag of popcorn from somewhere and was happily munching, watching the argument like it was her favorite movie. They both ignored her.

Loki's eyes trailed up and down Elizabeth's body, assessing her. She self-consciously brought her legs together and pulled her sweatshirt down, trying to make herself as modest as possible. "Hmm, this is worse than I thought. You must have gotten help from someone in order to get the age transformation and memory wipe right."

"What's that supposed to mean? There's nothing wrong with me!" Elizabeth was almost in tears now, frustration and confusion and pain all muddling together in her brain, making her feel horrible.

"Shhhh." Loki touched his index finger to her lips. Surprised by the contact and the iciness of his skin, Elizabeth became quiet. "Perhaps if I show you, you will remember." Loki stepped back.

Both girls gasped as a blue shimmer ran down his body, transforming the average looking teenager into a tall armored man. His dark short-cut hair became long and slicked back, curling slightly at the ends. His plain green short-sleeve T became a black old-style over coat with green and gold accents. What was once a pale, youngish face was now older, still young, but now with an ancientness hidden beneath the surface. The one thing that remained completely the same was his piercing green eyes.

The two girls stared at the otherworldly man now standing before them, trying to comprehend what they had just seen. Finally, it was Kamryn that broke the silence. She stood up from her chair clapping, her bag of popcorn falling to the ground, momentarily forgotten. "That was the best magic trick I've ever seen! It almost looks real!" She walked over and poked Loki's coat. "Hey, it is real! Ooh, can you do other things too? Hey, my little sister's having a birthday party next week, could we hire you? We can –"

Loki looked over at Elizabeth pleadingly as the girl continued to talk. "Could you, um . . .?" He gestured toward Kamryn, who was now walking in circles around him saying something about a clown and a hamster.

Elizabeth sighed. "Kamryn, leave the poor man alone. Remember what happened when you tried to hire that mime for last year's Christmas party?"

"He wasn't in prison for that long, only a few months!" she protested. "It's his fault that he wouldn't answer my question!"

"He's a mime! He's not supposed to talk!"

"Ohhhhhhhhh. Well why didn't you tell me before? I would have gotten the ice cream then!"

Elizabeth pinched the bridge of her nose. "I did."

"Oh." Kamryn stopped circling Loki and went back to her chair. She picked up her bag of popcorn and waved a hand at the other two. "Carry on."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. _She may not me emotionally bipolar, but she's definitely intellectually bipolar._

Taking the cue, Loki opened his mouth to speak, but Elizabeth raised a hand, stopping him. "Okay. Just to let you know, I'm freaking out internally right now because I have no idea what the crap just happened. I'm going to try to stay calm, so to do that I'm going to ask simple questions and you're going to give me simple answers. Alright?" He opened his mouth to speak again. "Just nod yes or no."

He closed his mouth and nodded.

"Good. Okay, first question: are you the real Loki?"

Another nod.

Skeptically, she asked, "Are you lying?" Inside, she desperately wanted him to crack up laughing, saying "Of course I'm not a Norse god! Oh my gosh, you're so gullible!" and revealing a cleverly hidden projector or mirror as he emerged from behind a curtain. She would have been embarrassed, but she would gladly take any amount of humiliation over learning that everything she had been taught as fantasy was actually true. She had always wished for magic to be real, but now that she was actually faced with the possibility, she found that she didn't like the idea at all: it left too many unknown factors.

Her heart sank as Loki solemnly shook his head and her neat picture of reality shattered around her. She searched his face, desperately wanting to find some hint of deceit, but found none. Even his eyes, which normally were cloudy with falsehoods, were now wide and truthful. She cried out in her mind. If this was real, how much else of her world was just spoon-fed lies? Her head began to ache more as she desperately tried to find some shred of reality to hand on to.

_Mom._

Elizabeth closed her eyes and forced herself to regain her composure, clinging onto memories of her mother. Through she was now gone, her mom had always been there for her, real and tangible and genuine. Even when the world had been spinning around her, Elizabeth could always rely on her mother to help her sort things out, to make thing right. She hid nothing from her daughter. She never lied. And nothing could change those memories.

"Are you alright?" Loki asked. Elizabeth's face flushed and she mentally kicked herself for making her weakness so apparent. "Yes, yes, I'm fine," she waved him off. "Just my head." His face became concerned, and Elizabeth gave herself another mental bruising. _Stupid, stupid, stupid! Now he thinks I'm a sissy! Why can't I keep my stupid mouth shut?_ Elizabeth gritted her teeth together. "I'm fine, really! It's nothing." Loki could see that it obviously wasn't, but he let it go.

"Next question! If you're a Norse god, why would you come here and why did you decide to talk to just me?"

He stayed mute and pointed to his mouth sarcastically. Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, you may answer this one with words."

"Good!" Loki clapped his hands together. "You see, darling –" Elizabeth flinched at the word – "I came down here to find you. Once I saw you here, I had to make sure it was you, so I invented this 'cousin' of mine that I live with, changed my form, and enrolled in school here. I made sure that I rode the same bus and had at least one class as you. Eventually, if it really was you, I knew that you would seek me out, just like you did this morning."

"Okay, I hate to burst your bubble, but I didn't chose to sit by you on the bus this morning. I honestly really did not want to. You were just that creepy weird kid that never socialized at all. I was forced to sit next to you because no one was willing to make room for me in their seat, mostly because they wanted to entertain themselves by seeing what would happen if someone actually sat by you. Unfortunately for me, I was the chosen guinea pig. To them, I've always been the expendable one," she finished bitterly.

"Not to me," Loki whispered. "Never to me."

"Why me? What's so special about me that made you come all the way down here from whatever realm you live in in space?"

"Asgard." Loki sighed. "It pains me to see you this way. I don't know why you did this to yourself, but I am here to help you regain your former life." He gently took Elizabeth's hands in his own. "When I said that you were like me, I meant it. Like me, you also grew up on Asgard. Like me, you also learned the ways of magic." He whispered the last part. "And like me, you also fell in love."

**Ooh, this is getting intense! Special thanks to my bff TheRealDigiGal - *dodges brick thrown at head* - alright, fine, ****_one_**** of my bffs, the inspiration of Kamryn's personality. She slapped me in the face with a black glove one day, giving me the idea I needed to connect the dream to the rest of the chapter. If you like Minecraft, check out her story "The Wings of Wonder".**

**Sorry this took so long to update! Things have gotten busy and my momentum has slowed down, so chapters will now be coming out once every week or so. Hope you enjoyed, and as always, please R&R!**


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